ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Aug 18, 2022 1:36:54 GMT
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,834 
Likes: 13,224
|
Post by stevep on Aug 18, 2022 14:19:49 GMT
Ok, so first off, yes. He is authorized to attack any and all Indonesian ships he encounters. His orders are to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against Indonesia. As for Roel Hordijk, he was a real WWII Dutch Submarine Officer. He served on the O-20, was captured by the Japanese after O-20 was sunk/scuttled, escaped from a POW camp by crawling through the sewer (shades of the Shawshank Redemption there), was found by members of the anti-Japanese Resistance, helped train them on their weapons, then fucking WALKED to Beijing from HONG KONG. From there he was sent to Columbo, and was back on a submarine by April, 1942. Total badass. He was a junior officer at that time, so I figured it wouldn't be stretching the bounds of reality for him to still be a submarine officer 17 years later in his late 30s/early 40s. Probably a senior Commander/about to be promoted to Captain.
Would you mean say Chungking as it was called then, the acting KMT capital? Beijing would be an odd choice as it was under Japanese control.
Otherwise totally agree. A hell of a character by the sound of it.
Steve
|
|
lordroel
Administrator
Member is Online
Posts: 67,970
Likes: 49,372
|
Post by lordroel on Aug 18, 2022 14:24:18 GMT
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,834
Likes: 13,224
|
Post by stevep on Aug 18, 2022 14:35:57 GMT
I think they made one a few years back of some Polish soldiers who escaped the gulags and managed to escape to safety in China IIRC so definitely a basis for such a film.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Aug 18, 2022 23:13:57 GMT
Ok, so first off, yes. He is authorized to attack any and all Indonesian ships he encounters. His orders are to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against Indonesia. As for Roel Hordijk, he was a real WWII Dutch Submarine Officer. He served on the O-20, was captured by the Japanese after O-20 was sunk/scuttled, escaped from a POW camp by crawling through the sewer (shades of the Shawshank Redemption there), was found by members of the anti-Japanese Resistance, helped train them on their weapons, then fucking WALKED to Beijing from HONG KONG. From there he was sent to Columbo, and was back on a submarine by April, 1942. Total badass. He was a junior officer at that time, so I figured it wouldn't be stretching the bounds of reality for him to still be a submarine officer 17 years later in his late 30s/early 40s. Probably a senior Commander/about to be promoted to Captain.
Would you mean say Chungking as it was called then, the acting KMT capital? Beijing would be an odd choice as it was under Japanese control.
Otherwise totally agree. A hell of a character by the sound of it.
Steve
The info I found said he (along with another Dutch officer and a Canadian officer) walked all the way to Peking from Hong Kong in early 1942. It's possible the article meant Chungking and put Peking out of habit, but that's what it said |
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,834
Likes: 13,224
|
Post by stevep on Aug 19, 2022 10:28:51 GMT
Would you mean say Chungking as it was called then, the acting KMT capital? Beijing would be an odd choice as it was under Japanese control.
Otherwise totally agree. A hell of a character by the sound of it.
Steve
The info I found said he (along with another Dutch officer and a Canadian officer) walked all the way to Peking from Hong Kong in early 1942. It's possible the article meant Chungking and put Peking out of habit, but that's what it said
I wonder possibly he made it to Beijing and then got out via reaching the Soviet embassy? Since at that point they were allied to the western powers against the Nazis but at peace with Japan. Although not sure where the Soviet embassy in Japanese ruled China was at that stage.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Aug 19, 2022 14:08:07 GMT
The info I found said he (along with another Dutch officer and a Canadian officer) walked all the way to Peking from Hong Kong in early 1942. It's possible the article meant Chungking and put Peking out of habit, but that's what it said
I wonder possibly he made it to Beijing and then got out via reaching the Soviet embassy? Since at that point they were allied to the western powers against the Nazis but at peace with Japan. Although not sure where the Soviet embassy in Japanese ruled China was at that stage.
From what I read, the Chinese Communist guerrillas were the ones who got him out of Hong Kong, and it was the Dutch Charge d'affairs that took charge of him when he reached Peking. Though the more I read, the more I'm convinced he went to Chungking instead |
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,834
Likes: 13,224
|
Post by stevep on Aug 20, 2022 13:26:21 GMT
I wonder possibly he made it to Beijing and then got out via reaching the Soviet embassy? Since at that point they were allied to the western powers against the Nazis but at peace with Japan. Although not sure where the Soviet embassy in Japanese ruled China was at that stage.
From what I read, the Chinese Communist guerrillas were the ones who got him out of Hong Kong, and it was the Dutch Charge d'affairs that took charge of him when he reached Peking. Though the more I read, the more I'm convinced he went to Chungking instead
Well the communists were largely based in the north and they might have preferred him to go that way rather than towards their nationalist rivals but that would have been towards Yuan and then the USSR so I suspect that Chungking is still more likely. Anyway interesting but a side issue. Don't want to distract from the TL.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 21:00:01 GMT
March 14, 1959
Halmahera Sea, 0330 Local Time
Water rushed into the tanks as vents and valves were opened. Hatches slammed shut even as men were still sliding down ladders. Zeeleeuw had spotted the enemy. She had been on the surface charging her batteries and using her radar intermittently to try and spot the ships she was looking for. She had succeeded. It was far sooner than expected, but there was no denying what she had seen.
After the first contact had been made, she had shut off her radar and approached slowly on the surface to get a firm identification. Those were landing ships out there, and they were being escorted by torpedo boats and at least one destroyer. Captain Hordijk had his orders. He was to close in and go for the transports. While being on the receiving end of naval gunfire was not pleasant, the men in New Guinea could survive it. They could not survive invasion. If he did not stop them here, they could not be stopped at all.
Roel had been the last man down the hatch from the bridge, and he slammed the hatch shut even as water began to surge into the conning tower, so quickly was his boat slipping beneath the waves. As his feet slammed into the steel deck of his boat's attack center in the conning tower, he began to bark out his orders. "General Quarters, all hands to battle stations. Rig ship for red. Make all torpedo tubes ready in all respects including opening the outer doors."
As his orders were rapidly repeated back to him, he nodded his acknowledgment and leaned nonchalantly against the periscope. He was the only man in his crew to have ever done this for real. To everyone else, it was all new. And the sight of the cool, calm, collected Captain was needed to steady their nerves. His men needed this, he had already seen the nervous looks on their faces when he had delayed giving the order to dive until they were only eight thousand yards from the Indonesian assault force. But he was gambling that the Indonesians were not the hardened professionals that the NATO navies were, or that the Japanese Navy had been during the war, and that they would not notice him until torpedos began to explode.
Zeeleeuw was riding somewhat uncomfortably at periscope depth, but he felt it was a worthwhile trade-off, since he could shoot much more accurately if he had a periscope sighting to put into the Torpedo Data Computer instead of just sonar bearings. Over the small speaker in the conning tower he heard a report, "Torpedo tubes one through six ready in all respects, outer doors are open."
Pushing the button that would carry his voice over the intercom, he replied, "Very well forward torpedo room. Well done."
Even as he finished speaking, another report came in, "Torpedo tubes seven through ten ready in all respects, outer doors are open."
"Very well aft torpedo."
His boat was creeping along at only 3 knots just beneath the waves, a shark hunting for a meal. Based on what he had seen from the surface, he would not have long to wait either. Slowly, slowly he began to get information from his sonar. The Indonesians were steaming straight at him, fat, dumb and happy. Where were their escorts? Did they think we would just let them land unmolested, he wondered?
Was his foolish gamble of closing so much on the surface really going to pay off? It looked like it was. It had been ten minutes since Zeeleeuw had slipped beneath the waves and it was time to take a look around.
"Up scope," he ordered.
Meeting the attack periscope as it slid up out of its well, he quickly spun in a circle looking for anything his sonar might have missed, like a subchaser sitting dead in the water with its engines off listening for a submarine. But there was nothing unexpected there this night. Instead he found his targets. Three large landing ships, a transport ship, five coasters and a handful of escorts. And they were only five thousand-three hundred yards away and still closing.
"Down scope."
Even as the second word was leaving his lips, the periscope was dropping back into it's well. Replaying what he had seen in his brief look above the surface, Roel nodded to himself. He would let them close for another few minutes before beginning his attack. Then he would raise the number one scope, activate the ST radar, get his range, bearing and speed data, and launch a full spread at them. Then God save the Indonesians.
But in the back of his head, a small voice whispered, "God save us."
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 21:03:10 GMT
March 14, 1959
Halmahera Sea, 0355 Local
Commander R.S. Subijakto was uneasy. His landing ship was holding the thrid place in line, and was steaming at a steady twelve knots. And that's what had him worried. Admiral Moeljadi had assured everyone that the Dutch had no naval forces in the theater and that their landing would be nearly unopposed. In fact, he was so confident that there was nothing to fear, he had refused to order the convoy to zigzag and the escorts were assigned close in positions to defend against possible air attack instead of looking for Dutch submarines. The noise from their own ships would almost certainly drown out the noise from any submarines out there.
The voyage had been quiet so far. Perhaps his superior was correct. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that they were steaming into a trap. All the stress and worry was exhausting him. He had just turned to order another cup of coffee from the messanger of the watch when he saw a massive spout of water explode along the hull of the ship in front of him. The reverberations from the blast followed almost immediately.
Shocked realization slammed into him with the force of a freight train. Before the water column alongside the ship ahead had even collapsed, he began roaring orders. "Left full rudder! All ahead flank! Sound battle stations and set full watertight integrity throughout the ship! Order the lookouts to watch for torpedo tracks from starboard!"
Even as his ship began to heel into the turn he heard a scream from the lookout. "Torpedo tracks to starboard!"
Commander Subijakto ran to the starboard bridge wing to see for himself. He had already done everything he could to avoid the inbound weapons. He stared in horror at the white tracks of the speeding missiles bored in on his ship. They would not avoid taking at least one hit. He closed his eyes and began to pray.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 21:06:56 GMT
March 14, 1959
Halmahera Sea, 0357 Local
Roel Hordijk watched the havoc his submarine had caused through the number one periscope. All ten fish in the tubes had been launched, all ten had run hot, straight and true. Six had struck their targets. The four ships that had been hit were all sinking. Two of the ships had taken two of the heavy Mark XIV torpedoes each. One of them, the third ship in line, had broken in half from the impacts. It had already rolled over and was rapidly sinking.
His crew had their orders to set a new record for reloading the torpedo tubes. And now he would have to take actions to preserve his command. Already, the Indonesian destroyer that he spotted on his approach was charging at him. Time to go deep and evade until he was ready to launch another attack.
"Down scope. Fifteen degrees down angle on the planes. Make your depth one hundred and twenty meters. Right full rudder, steady on course zero-two-zero."
He took a breath and said, "Sonar, I need continuous bearings to the destroyer coming at us."
Roel grabbed the periscope to steady himself as his boat dove for safety. The steep down angle would slow the reloading of his tubes, but it was a calculated risk he was willing to take. His orders were repeated back to him even as he plotted his next moves. There were still five coasters out there, along with the escorts, and he wanted at least one of them.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 21:10:25 GMT
March 14, 1959
Halmahera Sea, 0420 Local
The latest set of depth charges rolled off the stern of KRI Gadjah Mada. Depth charges were old tech, but they were effective tech. The depth charge throwers were being reloaded and would launch their deadly charges as soon as the reverberations from the last pattern of bombs subsided and the ASDIC could find the offending boat again.
The surviving coasters and the torpedo boats had been ordered to run back to port. The loss of the three landing ships that were carrying the majority of the assault force and the transport with most of the heavy equipment like the artillery, was a blow that they would not be able to overcome. Not now, anyway. Once they regrouped, and had a proper escort force, they could try again. Hopefully.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 21:16:08 GMT
March 14, 1959
Halmahera Sea, 0427 Local
The last set of depth charges still reverberated through the sea and his boat gently rocked in the remains of the explosive turbulence. The Indonesians had come close a few times, and his boat had taken more damage than he would prefer, but it was time to remind the hunters upon the surface that the shark they were hunting had teeth of their own. Zeeleeuw was rising slowly from the depths, with her bow pointed at the prowling destroyer. The transports that were his primary targets had all turned and ran. His sonar team thought that the torpedo boats had run with them.
In a voice more appropriate to the family pew back home than the attack center of a submarine, he said, "Make torpedo tubes one through four ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors. Warn the torpedo room crew to expect a snap shot. Raise the Number One scope."
Before the head of the scope had even broached the waves he was already scanning the water. It was a dark night, but it might still be possible to spot the shadow from the destroyer. No luck this time. Still, as the water drained away from the lens, he saw the destroyer and it was coming almost right at him.
Roel began to snap orders in a frenzy. "Snap shot! Tubes one and two! Angle on the bow, zero-zero-five degrees! Range, one thousand five hundred meters! Shoot!"
Zeeleeuw shuddered as both torpedos streaked from their tubes and towards the destroyer. "Both torpedos running hot, straight and normal! Left full rudder, all ahead full! Close the outer doors on tubes one and two! Prepare for another snap shot on tubes three and four!"
It was a risk leaving the scope up, the wake could give him away. But with two fish inbound, he didn't think it mattered that much. He kept the lens pointed at the Indonesian destroyer, praying his first two fish would find their mark. He was about to curse his luck and order the next two tubes fired when a mighty explosion rent the night asunder. One of his fish had found the mark afterall. The destroyer that had been harrying him bucked and heaved as the Mark XIV tore into it. The ship went dead in the water with a shudder and he could see men scrambling to get off the stricken vessel. The threat of invasion, at least for the foreseeable future, had ended.
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,834
Likes: 13,224
|
Post by stevep on Sept 23, 2022 21:45:09 GMT
Well that was spectacularly successful and even more amazingly the sub survived.  Its going to dent the Indonesian morale and Admiral Moeljadi, assuming he was with the force and is still alive is likely to see his career ending quickly after a screw up like that. I would expect the government will be looking for some action to take revenge and show that their doing something.
Not sure how well the Dutch can rearm the sub and the invaders will be more prepared next time but hopefully aid will arrive by then.
|
|
ssgtc
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 496
Likes: 740
|
Post by ssgtc on Sept 23, 2022 23:37:16 GMT
Well that was spectacularly successful and even more amazingly the sub survived. Its going to dent the Indonesian morale and Admiral Moeljadi, assuming he was with the force and is still alive is likely to see his career ending quickly after a screw up like that. I would expect the government will be looking for some action to take revenge and show that their doing something.
Not sure how well the Dutch can rearm the sub and the invaders will be more prepared next time but hopefully aid will arrive by then.
Zeeleeuw left the Netherlands with a full warload of 24 torpedos. They've fired half of them. If needed, they can conduct one more patrol with what they have (assuming similar targets). After that, I'm not sure. I'm assuming Hollandia/Biak would have at least some torpedos available. And the Mark XIV is still in widespread US service, so the USN could easily supply some from their own stocks in the Philippines. Hordijk and Zeeleeuw got very, very lucky. Against a competent escort, they would have been sunk, no questions about it. Even against what is very much the third string, they still got very close to being sunk and took damage. The Indonesians were completely unaware of the presence of Dutch submarines in the theater. Soviet intelligence had completely missed her sailing and the Indonesians never spotted her in the AO. In a few months, the KGB will find a report from an asset in Cape Town that a Dutch Submarine was refueled at the port on the 26th of February, but it was never forwarded to the proper personnel since the asset in question reported to someone who wasn't involved in the operation to disrupt NATO's response to Indonesia's seizure of West Irian. |
|
Its going to dent the Indonesian morale and Admiral Moeljadi, assuming he was with the force and is still alive is likely to see his career ending quickly after a screw up like that. I would expect the government will be looking for some action to take revenge and show that their doing something.